You are always talking about LFR having an incentive for heroic raiders to do it. How there is a chance at a reward if you choose to trudge thru this content. You claim that the content is not really meant for you but you will do it because Blizz has put that reward there and now you are psychologically compelled to do it, because you don't want to fall behind and such.

What you might not realize is that there is a psychological value of having LFR being just a weaker version of normal and heroic gear. It's something that the rest of the masses aspire to. If you change it to be completely different from the N/H gear, then you're changing that. And that psychological value is the same one you allude to about LFR having an incentive good enough for heroic raiders just for the trinkets alone.

In the end, that LFR trinket that is an incentive for you and other heroic raiders is also the same very incentive a guy that only does LFR has.

You're the one that is refusing to put yourself on the shoes of the people that would be affected by your changes the most. You are the one that is being intransigent here -- and that's why Ion disagrees with you and other heroic raiders.

I realize at the end of the day that parts of our design may simply not be ideal for your personal playstyle, and I understand that perspective, but hopefully some of this sheds some light on our thought process and the different considerations involved.

Don't you remember all the talk in previous expansions about the heroic raiders not wanting the pleb to get access to the same gear they have? or complain that their gear looks just like theirs and such? That sentiment within the heroic raiding community hasnt changed much. Some heroic raiders just gave up on that argument.

Blizz put a carrot at the end of the stick, you want to change that carrot because it looks tasty enough to you, but you and those like you, have enough skill to get access to tastier versions of that carrot. For some people, the carrot you want to change is the only carrot they have access to.

This is why I am saying you're devaluing LFR.

The problem is:- your argument is based on a psychological need to get a reward.- you dismiss the psychological need argument of those your changes would affect the most.

Both arguments are equally valid. The trinket being so OP/Broken or tier pieces from LFR are just red herrings.

I am sorry, if you don't see that the psychological value of LFR for the people that only do LFR is the same as the psychological value of running LFR for its reward to a heroic raider then you will always sound as, and I quote: "I'm trying so desperately to be a special snowflake and LFR/Flex shouldn't drop any useable loot because I'm a loot obsessed drone with no self control"

Heard on another podcast from another "HC Raider" that both Flex and LFR should be below the previous tier's heroic gear. So the current heroic is 535 right, that would mean the coming flex would have to be about 530, and the new LFR would be barely above the current LFR. Yeah, that will work really well.

It amazes me that the HC Raiders are so willing to shit on everyone else just because they don't want to be "tempted" to run LFR. The elitism is just amazing, they are are so eager to fuck everyone else over.

Amirya wrote:... because everyone needs a Catagonskin rug.

twinkfist wrote:i feel bad for the Mogu...having to deal with alcoholic bears.

Old tiers have always had stuff, but they're basically never run by people. We've gotten well past the days when Dragonspine Trophy and Grim Toll and Death's Verdict were things. I don't see why you think people would complain about, or actually run old raid tiers. I mean, do you foresee people running T15 Heroic for UVLS next patch right now, even if LFR exists? After all, 535 UVLS would probably be pretty close to comparable to a 528 trinket. Or foresee that they'll start doing it just because they have more time if they're not running LFR?

Charlie has been having terrible luck. He haven't seen heroic trinket droppig nor normal. He has LFR version luckily. He then reads patch 5.4 patch notes and starts to salivate from trinkets. Also Flex mode! 3 chances for upgrade trinket+coins! Then he sees "Loot only from one mode" -> He goes FUUUUUUUUU! and goes to forums. To Charlie feel optimal in progressing in heroics, he now has one option to obtain better trinket. And he's not pleased as he feels that Blizzard is limiting his fun! Bob otherhand has been crying in forums because he feels that Blizzard is forcing him to do LFR. He's now happy.

halabar wrote:Heard on another podcast from another "HC Raider" that both Flex and LFR should be below the previous tier's heroic gear. So the current heroic is 535 right, that would mean the coming flex would have to be about 530, and the new LFR would be barely above the current LFR.

Having 5.4 lfr be the same (or even slightly lower) ilvl as 5.3 heroic seems reasonable. Is that objectionable? I think even having 5.4 lfr be a half step higher than 5.3 normal wouldn't be so horrible.

fuzzygeek wrote:Having 5.4 lfr be the same (or even slightly lower) ilvl as 5.3 heroic seems reasonable. Is that objectionable? I think even having 5.4 lfr be a half step higher than 5.3 normal wouldn't be so horrible.

Posting from phone so don't have the ilvl numbers handy. Looking at that uber convenient chart, I really don't understand why this is a discussion at all. Is there a post where Darielle lays out an alternate solution?

(fwiw I dislike Theck's idea of having loot rolls from one mode affect other mode drops. "Oh I ran LFR and know I'm not going to get X, you should sub in someone else for that fight so they have a chance at loot since I already know I'm not going to get it," and the like. I'm not certain what problem it's supposed to fix.)

fuzzygeek wrote:Posting from phone so don't have the ilvl numbers handy. Looking at that uber convenient chart, I really don't understand why this is a discussion at all. Is there a post where Darielle lays out an alternate solution?

The only solutions Darielle has proposed have been either having LFR and Flex give you even lower ilvl loot, change the loot tables for LFR, or something really wonky dealing with loot lockouts that hurts more people that it benefits.

Worldie wrote:The problem with your method theck, is that it would cut away "high skill" raiders from LFR. That means, LFR will not have those 2-3 key elements that carry the whole raid of bads.You know it's always like that in LFR: 2-3 DPS/healers do pretty much all the job while most of the others can barely outdps a hunter's pet.

However, the vast majority of drama and discord is caused by the "elite" or "wannabe elite" raiders who think they are doing everyone a favour by just showing up.

I am sure you know them - they are the fringe players on heroic teams who get sat a lot, but when they get a chance will whine if they don't get loot preference, and will roll on literally anything as long as it is purple and they can equip it.

I can deal with wipes if I don't have to deal with those asshats. I'd be more than happy to see the "awesome" raiders hit the highway, never to soil themselves with lesser content ever again.

You are always talking about LFR having an incentive for heroic raiders to do it. How there is a chance at a reward if you choose to trudge thru this content. You claim that the content is not really meant for you but you will do it because Blizz has put that reward there and now you are psychologically compelled to do it, because you don't want to fall behind and such.

What you might not realize is that there is a psychological value of having LFR being just a weaker version of normal and heroic gear. It's something that the rest of the masses aspire to. If you change it to be completely different from the N/H gear, then you're changing that. And that psychological value is the same one you allude to about LFR having an incentive good enough for heroic raiders just for the trinkets alone.

In the end, that LFR trinket that is an incentive for you and other heroic raiders is also the same very incentive a guy that only does LFR has.

I think you're crossing a few streams here. Changing trinkets on LFR would never have to be anything beyond "Instead of Feathers ramping up to 14000 Strength and snapshotting, Feather gives 6000 Strength all the time". If Tier sets become a separate bonus on LFR, that doesn't mean the basic concept of the Tier bonus couldn't apply. All of these would be completely in line with the flavour.

You're making a wild claim about psychology and how a trinket that doesn't offer 100k dps affects what the rest of the masses aspire to. Do you think that a trinket that offers 20k more dps than any other trinket you could be using wouldn't be attractive enough for people who AREN'T raiding, and therefore only have 483's anyway? Because that is a completely ridiculous position to hold.

Don't you remember all the talk in previous expansions about the heroic raiders not wanting the pleb to get access to the same gear they have? or complain that their gear looks just like theirs and such? That sentiment within the heroic raiding community hasnt changed much. Some heroic raiders just gave up on that argument.

Why does what other idiots on the WoW forums and what they used to say in previous expansions have any relevance here? Do you think I'm one of them? ARe you replying to them and not me?

Heard on another podcast from another "HC Raider" that both Flex and LFR should be below the previous tier's heroic gear. So the current heroic is 535 right, that would mean the coming flex would have to be about 530, and the new LFR would be barely above the current LFR. Yeah, that will work really well.

It amazes me that the HC Raiders are so willing to shit on everyone else just because they don't want to be "tempted" to run LFR. The elitism is just amazing, they are are so eager to fuck everyone else over.

In theory, if Flex WAS at 530, LFR would be at 518 or 523. That's actually a couple of tiers above what previous LFR is, not "barely above".

Charlie has been having terrible luck. He haven't seen heroic trinket droppig nor normal. He has LFR version luckily. He then reads patch 5.4 patch notes and starts to salivate from trinkets. Also Flex mode! 3 chances for upgrade trinket+coins! Then he sees "Loot only from one mode" -> He goes FUUUUUUUUU! and goes to forums. To Charlie feel optimal in progressing in heroics, he now has one option to obtain better trinket. And he's not pleased as he feels that Blizzard is limiting his fun! Bob otherhand has been crying in forums because he feels that Blizzard is forcing him to do LFR. He's now happy.

And if LFR or Flex still existed, he wouldn't join an OpenRaid for old tiers to get his old trinket? His "fun" in running multiple instances of the same instance is being limited? Did that somehow come into play when separating 10-man and 25-man was a decision made? Does Blizzard WANT him to spend more time in multiple instances of the same raid in an expansion they put a lot of effort trying to make sure people wouldn't be doing that?

Do you tend to find people ever interested in running old content? Even back in the days when Dragonspine existed, it wasn't that common to go back into Gruul's Lair except on alt runs where occasionally mains tagged along with a reserve on those pieces? Is that a bad thing? Will this even be a thing?

There is almost 40 ilvls of difference between T16LFR and T16Heroic and yet people thing this is not enough.Q.E.D.

This is actually a problem in itself. The item level scaling across this expansion as a result of what they've been doing with item upgrades, 4 difficulty modes and Thunderforging has been ridiculous.

The only solutions Darielle has proposed have been either having LFR and Flex give you even lower ilvl loot

Wat?

Here are actual solutions suggested as options:- Loot lockout.- Adjust proc rates or effects on LFR trinkets/setbonuses/weapons so that LFR versions aren't massive power jumps.- Put in different trinkets or even loot tables for LFR. - I don't have a problem with Theck's/Thels' concepts, so that's another possiblity.

Nothing about LFR or Flex giving lower item level loot. I don't even know where you pulled that from.

Darielle wrote:I think you're crossing a few streams here. Changing trinkets on LFR would never have to be anything beyond "Instead of Feathers ramping up to 14000 Strength and snapshotting, Feather gives 6000 Strength all the time". If Tier sets become a separate bonus on LFR, that doesn't mean the basic concept of the Tier bonus couldn't apply. All of these would be completely in line with the flavour.

You're making a wild claim about psychology and how a trinket that doesn't offer 100k dps affects what the rest of the masses aspire to. Do you think that a trinket that offers 20k more dps than any other trinket you could be using wouldn't be attractive enough for people who AREN'T raiding, and therefore only have 483's anyway? Because that is a completely ridiculous position to hold.

Giving LFR unique gear is a lot of extra work for blizzard, while not at all fixing the problem. Either the new gear is exactly as good as the downleveled gear we'd have for LFR normally, in which case the problem remains the same, the new gear is better than the downleveled gear, in which case the problem is worse, and might force raiders to farm the trinkets even if they have the normal/hc trinkets, or the new gear is worse, in which case you'd be screwing over the LFRers. Heck, even if it's equal or better, but more bland, you'd screw over the LFRers, as they enjoy interesting procs as well, or perhaps even more than HC raiders.

Darielle wrote:In theory, if Flex WAS at 530, LFR would be at 518 or 523. That's actually a couple of tiers above what previous LFR is, not "barely above".

And it would be below the 522 valor items and craftables that a lot of them would have collected in the meantime, making most of 5.4's LFR loot completely useless to them.

Darielle wrote:

Charlie has been having terrible luck. He haven't seen heroic trinket droppig nor normal. He has LFR version luckily. He then reads patch 5.4 patch notes and starts to salivate from trinkets. Also Flex mode! 3 chances for upgrade trinket+coins! Then he sees "Loot only from one mode" -> He goes FUUUUUUUUU! and goes to forums. To Charlie feel optimal in progressing in heroics, he now has one option to obtain better trinket. And he's not pleased as he feels that Blizzard is limiting his fun! Bob otherhand has been crying in forums because he feels that Blizzard is forcing him to do LFR. He's now happy.

And if LFR or Flex still existed, he wouldn't join an OpenRaid for old tiers to get his old trinket? His "fun" in running multiple instances of the same instance is being limited? Did that somehow come into play when separating 10-man and 25-man was a decision made? Does Blizzard WANT him to spend more time in multiple instances of the same raid in an expansion they put a lot of effort trying to make sure people wouldn't be doing that?

Do you tend to find people ever interested in running old content? Even back in the days when Dragonspine existed, it wasn't that common to go back into Gruul's Lair except on alt runs where occasionally mains tagged along with a reserve on those pieces? Is that a bad thing? Will this even be a thing?

Imho, the problem is not with Charlie here. Blizzard just protected Charlie from forcing himself through LFR and Flex every week to fill his missing slots. Charlie is exactly the person people are aiming these solutions for, even though Charlie doesn't realize it.

The problem is making people pick and choose "Do I want to do LFR or Flex for loot this week? Or am I going to wait and hope a nice spot opens up on a Normal run before the week is over, even if that means I don't have time left to run Flex after?"

The problem is also with guilds saying "D P Q S and Y are going to get these drops. Everyone else disable your loot distribution for next boss, so you can still run it on LFR", or if loot distribution can't be disabled per boss: "Groups 1, 2 and 3, you are going to run LFR on bosses 1-7 this week. Groups 4, 5 and the backup people, you are going to run LFR on bosses 8-14 this week. We'll funnel all the gear to the other half of the team. Next week, we're going to switch you guys around." And the HC guilds that do put time in farming those last trinkets in LFR will certainly use this method as well. It will just be more time consuming to figure out everything, rather than making things less time consuming. Therefor, it doesn't solve the issue.

Darielle wrote:Loot lockout.

It's been explained several times that Loot lockout brings a ton of issues, and still encourages HC raiders to run LFR, just with an extra complex "who are going to be loot eligible for the next boss" system, so this is not a solution.

Darielle wrote:- Adjust proc rates or effects on LFR trinkets/setbonuses/weapons so that LFR versions aren't massive power jumps.- Put in different trinkets or even loot tables for LFR.

Nothing about LFR or Flex giving lower item level loot. I don't even know where you pulled that from.

If you're asking to put in weaker versions, ain't that the same as asking to put in lower ilvls? You're basically asking for LFR gear to be nerfed, just so HC raiders are less likely to go after it. If you're asking you put in different versions that aren't weaker, then how would that fix the problem at all?

Darielle wrote:- I don't have a problem with Theck's/Thels' concepts, so that's another possiblity.

The "Get your free LFR or Flex gear with your Normal/HC clear" would indeed fix the entire issue, but feels a little too much like "Here, have tons of extra gear for free." I could see it happening with free LFR loot in Normal/HC, but free LFR loot in Flex and free Flex loot in Normal/HC feels a little over the top to me.

Darielle wrote:In theory, if Flex WAS at 530, LFR would be at 518 or 523. That's actually a couple of tiers above what previous LFR is, not "barely above".

I have been raiding LFR only since 5.0 and I'm decked almost fully in 516 and 522 because SPA and Oondasta&Nalak. (Exeptions are trinkets and two tier pieces) LFR would give me only minimal upgrades then.

Darielle wrote:And if LFR or Flex still existed, he wouldn't join an OpenRaid for old tiers to get his old trinket? His "fun" in running multiple instances of the same instance is being limited? Did that somehow come into play when separating 10-man and 25-man was a decision made? Does Blizzard WANT him to spend more time in multiple instances of the same raid in an expansion they put a lot of effort trying to make sure people wouldn't be doing that?

25-man and 10-man separation ruined peoples fun if I remeber correctly. In Asia, that was the reason why they brought it back and why 25-man drops better loot. Also, I'm making wild guess that running through LFR/Flex is going to be much easier than running OpenRaid. Just my guess, haven't ever run those. Heck, I have seen people complaining that valor cap is no fun as they like running raids/scenarios/instaces and it's limiting their fun.

Giving LFR unique gear is a lot of extra work for blizzard, while not at all fixing the problem. Either the new gear is exactly as good as the downleveled gear we'd have for LFR normally, in which case the problem remains the same, the new gear is better than the downleveled gear, in which case the problem is worse, and might force raiders to farm the trinkets even if they have the normal/hc trinkets, or the new gear is worse, in which case you'd be screwing over the LFRers. Heck, even if it's equal or better, but more bland, you'd screw over the LFRers, as they enjoy interesting procs as well, or perhaps even more than HC raiders.

The work done in creating new items for the patch involves copying items over, allocating new stats and then scaling over. As a process, this effort isn't changed. It WOULD be extra effort if they NOW went in and tried to change stats in the Siege of Orgrimmar patch, but I think we can be rest assured that we're not talking about something that's on the cards for next patch anyway.

If the new gear is better by virtue of the fact that a raider hasn't had a new trinket for 7 months, that is an entirely different situation from "Trinkets are awesome for everyone". At the absolute worst case, you haven't had 100% success, you've had 80% success. That a solution won't perfectly pull off every case isn't an argument against it.

To argue that LFR players might enjoy interesting procs more than Heroic raiders is extremely silly. The interest level of a proc isn't even tied to power anyway - DBW was interesting simply by virtue of the fact that you turned into a Taunka.

And it would be below the 522 valor items and craftables that a lot of them would have collected in the meantime, making most of 5.4's LFR loot completely useless to them.....I have been raiding LFR only since 5.0 and I'm decked almost fully in 516 and 522 because SPA and Oondasta&Nalak. (Exeptions are trinkets and two tier pieces) LFR would give me only minimal upgrades then.

518 or 523 Tier gear, trinkets, etc. are certainly going to be better than 522 Valor items or craftables. Unless "use" is relegated to "increased my item level". Even by virtue of simply sockets and itemisation, these so-called "minimal upgrades" should easily be a 20% or more performance boost, and that's not minimal.

Bearing in mind of course that they certainly aren't expecting the average LFR raider to actually BE fully decked out, or to also be farming Oondasta/Nalak. Shado-Pan Assault is also an outlier in Valor slot availability - I wouldn't expect that to be the case in the game going forward.

The problem is making people pick and choose "Do I want to do LFR or Flex for loot this week? Or am I going to wait and hope a nice spot opens up on a Normal run before the week is over, even if that means I don't have time left to run Flex after?"

The problem is also with guilds saying "D P Q S and Y are going to get these drops. Everyone else disable your loot distribution for next boss, so you can still run it on LFR", or if loot distribution can't be disabled per boss: "Groups 1, 2 and 3, you are going to run LFR on bosses 1-7 this week. Groups 4, 5 and the backup people, you are going to run LFR on bosses 8-14 this week. We'll funnel all the gear to the other half of the team. Next week, we're going to switch you guys around." And the HC guilds that do put time in farming those last trinkets in LFR will certainly use this method as well. It will just be more time consuming to figure out everything, rather than making things less time consuming. Therefor, it doesn't solve the issue.

You still haven't been convincing in showing how this is making things more time consuming for anyone compared to what they currently do now. Right now, everyone runs those LFR bosses, AND said raid group cherry picks Normal mode groups to maximise loot allocation anyway. At the worst case, you're still making the time commitment less.

The entire point of the various difficulty modes is that people DO choose the difficulty mode that most suits them. If Charlie is a Flex raider, he's meant to be doing Flex. His pugs are meant to be pugging Flex and full clearing Flex instead of full clearing Normal. If he's capable of full clearing Normal mode pugs, he's meant to be doing Normal mode, and not Normal mode on top of Flex mode.

25-man and 10-man separation ruined peoples fun if I remeber correctly. In Asia, that was the reason why they brought it back and why 25-man drops better loot. Also, I'm making wild guess that running through LFR/Flex is going to be much easier than running OpenRaid. Just my guess, haven't ever run those. Heck, I have seen people complaining that valor cap is no fun as they like running raids/scenarios/instaces and it's limiting their fun.

Consider then why Valor cap is still in the game. Also, you're confusing the Asia lockout structure somewhat.

If you're asking to put in weaker versions, ain't that the same as asking to put in lower ilvls? You're basically asking for LFR gear to be nerfed, just so HC raiders are less likely to go after it

Is having a 502 Rune offer the same benefit as a 502 Talisman of Bloodlust the same thing as lowering the item levels of the entirely of LFR mode?Because I don't buy that at all.

Darielle wrote:I think you're crossing a few streams here. Changing trinkets on LFR would never have to be anything beyond "Instead of Feathers ramping up to 14000 Strength and snapshotting, Feather gives 6000 Strength all the time". If Tier sets become a separate bonus on LFR, that doesn't mean the basic concept of the Tier bonus couldn't apply. All of these would be completely in line with the flavour.

You're making a wild claim about psychology and how a trinket that doesn't offer 100k dps affects what the rest of the masses aspire to. Do you think that a trinket that offers 20k more dps than any other trinket you could be using wouldn't be attractive enough for people who AREN'T raiding, and therefore only have 483's anyway? Because that is a completely ridiculous position to hold.

You want to change LFR completely, you want so it gives different gear that is not compatible with Flex/Normal/Heroic -- you are indeed sounding like "I don't want the unwashed masses to have the same, if weaker, gear than I do"

And you're the one that brought psychology in first. You say you're compelled to run LFR for its shinies. That you have a need to run LFR for its shinies. You then talk about you do it out of peer pressure, because you dont want to be that person who holds back that raid and stuff. There is a psychological effect behind all this. You just think that because you're a heroic raider, what you say has more weight on how LFR should be designed than the people that run LFR because that's all they have access to, and people that still use it as a stopgap and are doing Normals.

Why does what other idiots on the WoW forums and what they used to say in previous expansions have any relevance here? Do you think I'm one of them? ARe you replying to them and not me?

I'm not talking about other forums, I'm talking about THIS forums. And I'm currently talking to you because you sure do sound like they did back then.

In theory, if Flex WAS at 530, LFR would be at 518 or 523. That's actually a couple of tiers above what previous LFR is, not "barely above".

Listen to yourself. You want LFR and Flex so weak that not even Normal raiders would be interested in doing them. Have you been to LFR when its monday? Where every boss has at least 5 stacks of determination?

You want their rewards to be so weak that its barely more powerful from VP gear from the previous tier!! I am sorry, that just sounds like elitism.

You want to change LFR completely, you want so it gives different gear that is not compatible with Flex/Normal/Heroic -- you are indeed sounding like "I don't want the unwashed masses to have the same, if weaker, gear than I do"

Again - you're reading what you want to read and responding to your imagination of a Heroic raider. What the "unwashed masses" (a term that you certainly have not had me ever use to refer to the target audience for LFR) have is irrelevant to me. If I wanted to ensure that these "unwashed masses" can't have gear that IS weaker than what I can have anyway, half the possible solutions would not be on the table.

And you're the one that brought psychology in first. You say you're compelled to run LFR for its shinies. That you have a need to run LFR for its shinies. You then talk about you do it out of peer pressure, because you dont want to be that person who holds back that raid and stuff. There is a psychological effect behind all this. You just think that because you're a heroic raider, what you say has more weight on how LFR should be designed than the people that run LFR because that's all they have access to, and people that still use it as a stopgap and are doing Normals.

I actually haven't talked about peer pressure at all, but thanks for making things up and then responding to them. I certainly have not played a "I'm a Heroic raider and I know everything card". "Return on effort" isn't a psychological term, and the only claims I've made on incentive are the LFR offers an incentive, a statement easily provable. Your claim was that by not having UVLS not be as big as it is, only about as big as Cha'Ye's, what the masses aspire to would be affected. That's a claim on an entirely different level, and you glossed over the actual question I asked entirely to rant about Heroic Raiders some more.

What DOES actually give me a bit more weight is that I am a designer - so I know the actual effort behind a suggestion that I can make. AKA, when I point out that a separate itemisation for LFR, which is only one of the suggestions that exists does not in fact create more effort for Blizzard, that's borne from an understand of the design process. It also allows me to ensure that a suggestion that I make preserved the key elements of LFR for the people who run LFR because that's all they have access to - ensuring that character progression remains, ensuring that LFR exists and is going to be something that can be run at any time, and that LFR will not become something that cannot be completed.

I'm not talking about other forums, I'm talking about THIS forums. And I'm currently talking to you because you sure do sound like they did back then.

There is a huge difference between me and the random idiot trying to make sure that LFR can't be good for the people it's intended for.So far, you've done a terrific job at making up your own imaginary position, in your own words making fun of Heroic raiders, and you're doing a terrific job right now of acting as if "Heroic raiders" are one voice of douchiness, entitlement and "wanting to keep the plebs in their place", in spite of the fact that none of the Heroic raiders who've commented in this thread have adopted that kind of attitude.

You're projecting your own behavioural pattern on other people because you don't like who they are. It's a little disappointing.

I'm still waiting on why you think anything suggested would actually make it so that LFR will not be run by anyone, especially its target audience. You still haven't explained to me what extra effort you think the developers will have to take up for the things you've said will add a whole bunch of work for them. Etc.

Listen to yourself. You want LFR and Flex so weak that not even Normal raiders would be interested in doing them. Have you been to LFR when its monday? Where every boss has at least 5 stacks of determination?

You want their rewards to be so weak that its barely more powerful from VP gear from the previous tier!! I am sorry, that just sounds like elitism.

What I said was that in theory, if Flex was at X, LFR would be at X-13 or X-7, and that those are 1.5-2 tiers above LFR currently is. I didn't actually say that I WANTED LFR and Flex to be there. I've actually said that by removing any conflicting desires, they can freely bump LFR rewards to 535 or so if they desire to.

Please act as though you're reading what I'm saying.

In addition, I do do LFR on Mondays, and no the LFR's I do do not have at least 5 stacks of Determination. The occasional wipe tends to be a result of something silly going on, like a tank who is AFK when Megaera is pulled, and that only ever results in one wipe. Regardless, even if that condition were the norm for LFR, the only result would be that Blizzard would tune LFR down even further.

Look, I get it. You've come across Heroic Raiders that were meanies. Whatever. It's a little bit sad that you can't get over that imagined perception the moment you see someone who IS a Heroic Raider though. I sincerely hope you're willing to actually talk to me, and I definitely hope that when I'm trying to understand why you feel that X or Y would result in the things you claim it will, that you will actually even attempt to explain why you think that. Because right now, I'm trying to discuss something with you, and you're trying to discuss something with someone from 2 years ago.

Klaudandus wrote:Well, guess what. Ion seems to agree more with me than with you. So we're stuck in this status quo.

And the reason this discussion started is that I was pointing out why Ion's opinions of what players do don't match reality, and don't match Blizzard's own stances in some cases. That's not really a status quo, especially since they ARE discussing and iterating on LFR in general, and looking at things like tier in LFR going in the new expansion.

So if you're taking the stance that Ion agrees with you more than he does me, that's not really true. You certainly don't see Ion talking about how much extra effort itemisation would be and that's why they don't want to do something, or how all the hardcores are so whiny and wanting to keep the LFR man down, or that Heroic Raiders lack self-control and that's why they're going after trinkets. All he HAS said is that he doesn't feel that lowering item level is a solution, and I certainly haven't argued otherwise, because it isn't a solution.

Klaudandus wrote:Actually he does mention that he is aware of arguments like yours, he just doesn't think its enough to dissuade him and change what plans they have for both LFR and Flex.

And you're pulling this from which imaginary Watcher post? If you're talking about this part:"The separate lockouts do also offer benefits to many guild raiders who may want to work on achievements separately, or may for the first time be able to hop in an off-night raid with some real-life friends on a different server, without it conflicting with their main raid lockout."Those concepts are preserved in "arguments like mine".

What he's actually said is that he hopes it will be offset by the fact that there will be gating. What I'm talking about removes the need for hiding modes behind 1-2 month gating processes.

I realize at the end of the day that parts of our design may simply not be ideal for your personal playstyle, and I understand that perspective, but hopefully some of this sheds some light on our thought process and the different considerations involved.

Klaudandus wrote:I realize at the end of the day that parts of our design may simply not be ideal for your personal playstyle, and I understand that perspective, but hopefully some of this sheds some light on our thought process and the different considerations involved.

That's nowhere near what you're trying to make it sound like. Especially because part of his expectations of what players do or feel is based on a high-level theory that doesn't bear out in reality.

Did we really leave the "Hardcore raiders are meanies" for "Watcher is authority"? Because that seems to be pretty selective hiding behind Blizzard coming from you considering some of the things you were saying just a week or two ago. Of course what they do will not be ideal for everyone's personal playstyle. That stays true regardless of what they ever do. As a statement, "we understand this may not be ideal for you, but we understand that and would like to shed some light" is one of the more meaningless and generic PR-ish-statements that can be tacked on to a post by a designer of a product. It would also be true if he decided that Paladins liked running out of mana, and I highly doubt you'd be pretending that's a status quo.

There is a big difference between breaking a class/spec and how content is designed.

And one could argue your statement of "Especially because part of his expectations of what players do or feel is based on a high-level theory that doesn't bear out in reality." is highly subjective and biased.

If you think you're so right, go pester him. Apparently others tried already and that's why he chose to respond in that manner in the first place -- which means, he already heard the comments about LFR and Flex ilvls being so "high" (YMMV seeing how T15H is above T16LFR and T16H being almost 40 ilvls about T16LFR) and decided to address that and say they were ok with it.

Klaudandus wrote:I realize at the end of the day that parts of our design may simply not be ideal for your personal playstyle, and I understand that perspective, but hopefully some of this sheds some light on our thought process and the different considerations involved.

That's nowhere near what you're trying to make it sound like. Especially because part of his expectations of what players do or feel is based on a high-level theory that doesn't bear out in reality.

Did we really leave the "Hardcore raiders are meanies" for "Watcher is authority"? Because that seems to be pretty selective hiding behind Blizzard coming from you considering some of the things you were saying just a week or two ago. Of course what they do will not be ideal for everyone's personal playstyle. That stays true regardless of what they ever do. As a statement, "we understand this may not be ideal for you, but we understand that and would like to shed some light" is one of the more meaningless and generic PR-ish-statements that can be tacked on to a post by a designer of a product. It would also be true if he decided that Paladins liked running out of mana, and I highly doubt you'd be pretending that's a status quo.

Yes and no.

While it's a PRish statement, given the nonstop whining about Flex and LFR on the forums, it's the PR way of saying "Deal with it".

Amirya wrote:... because everyone needs a Catagonskin rug.

twinkfist wrote:i feel bad for the Mogu...having to deal with alcoholic bears.